Two families
Sir: Judy Froshaug's letter in your issue of 29 May says a great deal more about her than Mr Waugh. Having re-read Ms Froshaug's article, it is clear that she is writing about a family whom she represents as 'middle-class', typical of that class, and as such perhaps very different from what most of us might imagine a typical middle- class family to be. Indeed, the only thing at all interesting about the family in question was that they were, so Ms Froshaug alleged, 'typical'. If that was not the case then why did she bother to write the article in the first place?
I am not as clever as Mr Waugh, thus when I first read the article I tended to accept it as fact and was left feeling somewhat depressed and dispirited. Upon reading Mr Waugh's subsequent article, I realised that I had been taken in, and resolved never again to accept as a fact what amounted to no more than a plausible opi- nion, simply because I had read it in what I assumed was a 'reputable' newspaper. In any event, I shall certainly not be reading The Times again.
Apart from denying her own purpose, and thus her integrity, Ms Froshaug's letter seems to imply that Mr Waugh's greed forces him to be prolific and, in so being, mediocre in his writing. Well, there are thousands of Froshaugs and a mere handful of Waughs to redress the balance, so he must be prolific; and being so prolific, is it not astonishing that Mr Waugh maintains such a consistently high standard in his writing?
Timothy Plate!
PO Box 33, 8 High Street, Reading, Berkshire
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